19

Jul 2008

Ironman Coeur d'Alene

I've never been more prepared. With well over 300 hours of training since January, when I reached Coeur d'Alene, I was ready to race. For me, the race is the reward for all of my hard work. And it was rewarding! Obviously things went wrong... getting kicked in the face in the water, a positive split swim, slow out of T1, and wind on the bike, but those are the things you have to deal with in a race. The best part of the race was waiting patiently to drop the hammer on the run.

19

Jul 2008

My Road Bike and the Mystery Man

I dropped my tri bike off at the local bike shop for pickup by Tri Bike Transport who will get my bike to Coeur d'Alene safe and sound. But with two rides to complete, one today and one tomorrow, I am left with only my road bike. I removed it from the trainer yesterday, cleaned it up, changed the back tire which was pretty close to trashed from all the trainer abuse and got it ready for my ride this morning. My workout consisted of a run-bike-run combo and I set forth on the first part of my workout. When I returned, I found the back tire was lacking air. I found a thorn in the tire which I must've picked up in my garage. This could be seen as a bad omen but I didn't see it that way. I'm pretty fast at changing a flat and was off on my ride in a matter of minutes.

19

Jul 2008

T2: Nutrition

I was a fast food junkie when I entered into the world of triathlon. It was a convenient way to eat and eat fast. But as my training became more serious, my eating became healthier. Fast forward to today and you’d see that I’m a decent cook and fast food has been completely eliminated from my diet. But while I am a cook, I am not a chef and therefore lack the imagination for creation. You see, a cook can follow instructions from a recipe but a chef can create. I recently came across an old idea with a new twist… meals ready to eat. But not the kind I ate in the field as a soldier. These meals are prepared by a real chef, Chef Jeremy Smith, from T2: Nutrition. Jeremy is a chef who specializes in nutrition and also understands the nutritional needs of a triathlete since he is one himself. I think he’s found himself a nice niche for himself and I wrote him with some questions about his service.

19

Jul 2008

Juggling Act

With 17 days remaining until CdA, I am surprisingly calm. I have entered the final week of training before my taper begins and the workouts appear to be designed to test my mental capacity. But not in the sense of... it's mentally going to break me because it's so hard. It's more along the lines of a workout that has too much detail for my small brain to remember. I had a run yesterday that consisted of hills and drills. It was so complex that I had to take notes and carry them along.

When I started this training plan back in January, I could see progress almost immediately so I decided that I would not question it for fear of understanding it. If I understood it, I might try to be involved. And that was the point of hiring a coach in the first place. I don't want to be involved at that level. Don't get me wrong, I've inserted my input along the way but I don't want to dissect it and try to make it better... or so I would think.

19

Jul 2008

I Waxed My Legs

As a male triathlete, there are many reasons why you would shave your legs. Of course none of them are actually legitimate. The reasons vary from hydrodynamics, infection prevention, aerodynamics, but really it's all just a way of rationalizing that you just want to shave your legs. And you want to do it because everyone else does it. Call it a rite of passage that separates you from everyone else. Well, except that everyone else does it too.